Dream of the Red Chamber

Author: Guan Qingzhang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-02-01
Features: The book primarily presents the love story between Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu; it is an immortal love tragedy. If one mistakenly believes that Dream of the Red Chamber is "just" about Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu, then of course, that would be a great mistake. However, it is unlikely that anyone would deny that their story is indeed a crucial part of Dream of the Red Chamber, even serving as the main backbone of the entire work. The content of Dream of the Red Chamber is incredibly rich, covering everything from architecture and garden art, clothing, utensils, food and drink, medicine, music, art, theatrical performances, philosophy and religion, rituals and institutions, to seasonal customs—all of which are not only touched upon but also described in meticulous detail. As for characters, the author Cao Xueqin wrote over four hundred in Dream of the Red Chamber (equivalent to the total number of characters created in all of Shakespeare's plays!). Among them, characters like Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu, who are vividly portrayed both in appearance and personality, are conservatively estimated to number at least dozens! The grandeur of Dream of the Red Chamber is thus evident.
Cao Xueqin, also known as Cao Zhan, styled Mengruan, and known by the sobriquets Qinxi, Qinpu, and Xueqin, came from an extraordinary background. He was born into a renowned aristocratic family, with his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father holding positions in the Qing court's Inner Ministry for over six decades, inheriting the title of Jiangning Textile Manufacturer. During the Yongzheng era, his father's family was unfortunately dismissed and their property confiscated. In the Qianlong era, even greater misfortunes befell the Cao family, leading to its complete decline. Due to Cao Xueqin's firsthand experience of the vicissitudes of a declining aristocratic family, he was able to portray the various aspects of feudal society in the old society with such subtlety and vividness.
What Cao Xueqin sought to write was a magnificent family that once flourished in wealth and glory but later fell into decline due to the criminal accusations of its members, ultimately becoming a tragic tale of emptiness. This grand tragedy was composed of the individual tragedies of many important characters, and the love tragedy of Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu was just one of them. However, as mentioned earlier, their tragedy is indeed one of the most crucial parts of Dream of the Red Chamber. Therefore, presenting their story as the main focus might seem to "narrowen" the scope of Dream of the Red Chamber, but it should also adequately convey the essence of the work. Their tragedy began in a feudal society where marriage arrangements were always decided by parents, with children having no say in the matter. Jia Baoyu's father ordered him to marry Xue Baochai, and he had no choice but to comply, even though he secretly preferred Lin Daiyu. The inability to choose one's own spouse ultimately led to the tragedy of Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu, and Xue Baochai. This love tragedy was perfectly intertwined with the rise and fall of the Jia family, complementing and reinforcing each other.
Dream of the Red Chamber first began to circulate in the mid-18th century and quickly became wildly popular across the country shortly after its release. Despite its sharp critiques of feudalism, the book was widely read among feudal scholars and officials at the time, even giving rise to the saying, "If one does not discuss Dream of the Red Chamber when starting a conversation, even though they have read poetry and books, it is in vain." The value and significance of Dream of the Red Chamber are multifaceted:
· It is considered the finest work among Chinese classical long novels.
· It marks the first time in the history of Chinese classical long novels that an author "based their creation on real-life materials, especially their own genuine experiences and feelings." Many scholars believe that due to this, Dream of the Red Chamber can be said to have already entered the realm of modern fiction.
Because Dream of the Red Chamber is so rich and profound, studying it has become a field of study. However, it must be emphasized that the Dream of the Red Chamber we see today was not written solely by Cao Xueqin but also by another highly important author, Gao E, who lived slightly later than Cao Xueqin.
When Cao Xueqin first began writing Dream of the Red Chamber, he was very young, not yet in his twenties. He spent ten years on it, revising and editing it five times, but at the time of his death, the work was only completed to eighty chapters, leaving it as an incomplete manuscript. It was less than three decades after Cao Xueqin's death that Gao E and others compiled, supplemented, and published the last forty chapters, which were attributed to an unknown author, resulting in a 120-chapter edition. The tragic love story of Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu was completed following the of the first eighty chapters, and it is generally believed to align closely with the part written by Cao Xueqin.